131 Albert St, East Lansing, MI 48823
The Challenge
Harper’s, a well known restaurant & bar among Michigan State Spartans and East Lansing residents, needed to refurbish their iconic signage. The 26 year old sign was outlined in neon and was expensive to maintain as well as posed a safety concern. After years of servicing the sign, Harper’s contracted Johnson Sign Co. to refurbish the original sign. The sign was cherished by the owners who designed it themselves and even had a homemade plate, spoon & fork as a part of the sign. We knew we needed to keep the integrity of the sign while making it more efficient and safe.
The Solution
From the neon to the faces, the project was completely hand crafted and customized to give a fresh look to this iconic sign. To keep the neon effect and bright colors we used LED neon, a neon alternative that is a much more efficient and durable. While this update seems simple it was everything but; LED rope lighting has to be manually shaped and hand formed as it doesn’t hold like traditional neon. There were 5 different colors of LED to match the face, 3 of which were fixed colors and the others controlled by an RGB controller to get the exact shade of purple and blue. While a new sign allows for computer generated route files to route the faces, a refurbishment like this one required us to hand trace and jigsaw cut the letters to get it to the exact size needed. To top off this one of a kind sign we polished the plate and silverware attached to bring it back to life.
The Result
All and all this project was a team effort and everyone went above and beyond for the client. It was well worth it as they stated the sign has never looked better and was extremely happy with the result!
